Category: choice

Life is a series of twists & turns , based on the choices we make. Viktor Frankl, in his book Man search for meaning states that “between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response “.

Hence it is necessary that we weigh the options before us and choose wisely. The decisions that we make are important for this journey to be smooth.

We can divide decision making into 3 categories. Decisions can be

a) Emotional or from the heart

b) Rational or from head

c) Based on common sense or largely what is done by people in general.

The choices we make in life will largely depend on one or more of the above 3 factors. While there will some elements of all 3 in all decisions, one of the above aspects will play a larger role that the others. Different situations require a slightly different responses.

Here are some of my thoughts on how to make judicious choices

Emotional decisions: Emotional decisions happen when the choice that we make is dependent on our feelings. This is decision that is based from the heart. For e.g. making a career choice should eventually come from the heart and not be based of the head. During the early stages of the career we can make a logical or rational choice. But as we become older it is essential that we pursue a career that we love. This career change should come from your heart. It should be your passion in life. This is because you are less likely to get frustrated when doing something you love.

Rational or logical decisions: These set of decisions need to made through cold logic and are more from the head. Your initial career choice are better off based on logic, depending on the avenues for future growth. Your investment for the future of your family should be rational. This investment could be your savings, investments or insurance policies and should be based on sound logic. There is no room for emotion here. You should calculate how much you should set aside for your child’s future studies, marriage etc. It is also good to plan out your retirement savings. If we are recruiting someone for our startup or promoting someone our decision should be more rational and less emotional.

Decisions based on common sense: This is the third set of decisions that one needs to make. Many a time we will not have the luxury of following our emotions or passions. For e,g, one may a reasonably talented singer or painter. But does it make sense to pursue this as a full-time profession? Maybe. Sometimes one needs to temper this drive and choose a more common sense approach. For e.g. one could take a more sensible route of pursuing a professional course while continuing with one’s passion. Similarly while buying a new house or a new car, oftentimes we will not be able to afford a house in a posh locality nor will be able to buy the sportscar of our dreams. These times our decision needs to be based mostly out of common sense with some amount of emotion and logic.

In most situations in life our decisions will be based on all the 3 components to a larger or smaller extent. We need to be judicious in our choices that we make so that we don’t regret our choices.